Container



P. ZALKIND May 11,1943.

CONTAINER Original Filed Sept. 21, 1933 INVENTOR.

ryhilip Zalfz'fl ATTORNEY.

tion Serial No.

' or the like, and m re ing means at the open end Patented May 11, 1943 commas rmup' Zalklnd, New York, N. r.

Original application September 21, 1933, Serial No.

690,360, now Patent No. 2,118,011, dated May 17.

1938, which is a division of No. 631,682, September 3, 1932,

application Serial now Patent No.

1,946,516, dated February 13, 1934. Divided and this application December 14, 179,765. Renewed November 3,

3 Claims.

Thi application is a division of my application Serial No. 1933, issued as Patent No. 2,118,011, May 17, 1938, which in turn is a division of my applica- 631,682 filed September 3, 1932 and which eventuated into Patent No. 1,946,516, issued February 13, 1934.

My invention relates to novel casings and drawers adapted to be stacked to form a file cabinet particularly, relates to casings and cooperating drawers which are collapsible and accordingly adapted to be shipped in knockdown condition.

1937, Serial No.

690,360, filed September 21,

Although containers or casings have heretofore been constructed of sheet material such as cardboard, corrugated board, and similar materials, these have been found to be deficient in rigidity, stability, load-carrying capacity, and facility in operating the drawer. And as to the last, particularly where attempt has been made to stack a. plurality of casings each containing a loaded drawer. In such instances, the load in each casing affected all the casings below it, producing various degrees of bowing of side walls, distortion and binding at the open ends of the casings, making operation difllcult, and seriously aifecting the life and usefulness of such containers.

Accordingly, among the objects of my invention are to provide: a novel, inexpensive and rugged container or casing adapted for storing records and the like; means in a stack of individual casings for maintaining a predetermined geometrical configuration and dimension at the open edge or mouth of each casing; reinforcing or stiffenor mouth ofmy novel casing construction; stiflening means adapted to be interposed between the upper and lower ,walls of a container; coacting means at the edges of open ends; a casing reinforced solely at the open end; a continuous load-carrying means in -a stack of containers; reinforcing members at the open end of a collapsible container so constructed that the reinforcements on superposed casings are in alignment with each other causing the load in one casing to bear directly on the reinforcing member 01' the casings below.

Other objects are to provide, in a collapsible casing construction of the character of material mentioned, means to prevent swaying; to construct such' a novel device so that it may be manufactured to be shipped in a knock-down condition, of simple and easy assembly and erection by the user; to provide such novel containers and casings in knocked-down condition, thus adapted to lie substantially flat, requiring a minimum of space for shipment and storage, providing lowest cost, handling, marketing and distributlon and reduced risk of damage beforebeing Put in use.

There are other objects and advantages of my invention which, together with the foregoing, will appear in the following detailed description of the invention in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a casing, adapted to receive a drawer constructed like those illustrated in my parent application Serial Number 631,682, filed September 3, 1932, of which the present application is a division.

Figure 2 is a perspective view or a casing like that illustrated in Figure 1, showing the horizontal flap members folded to lie between the vertical flaps.

Figure 3 ,is a sectional elevation on the line {-4 of Figure 2 looking in the direction of the arrows and showing the horizontal flaps only partially folded in to illustrate their position between the vertical flaps.

Figure 4 is a plan view of a developed blank tor forming the container of Figure 1.

Figure 5 is a view in perspective showing a container of the type of Figure 1 partially collapsed.

Referring now to the drawing, Figure l'discloses one form of my casing and it will be noted that in general the casing comprises a rectangular tube 3| with one end 32"left open and the other end 33 provided with closure flaps secured to each other in any suitable manner, as by tape, and the connected edges of the blank being secured together by any well known means, such for example, as'the tape 34. The tube is formed of a, blank substantially suchas shown in Figure 4 suitably cut and scored. 7

My invention contemplates so forming the open end of a collapsible casing that its shape is not distorted by this purpose the front or open end 32 of the casing is reinforced by first turning extensions of the material on itself along a scored edge to form a layer 35. If it is desired to further increase the strength of the front or open end of the casing, the material may be again turned on itself to form be obvious, this principle may be followed by regulating the number of layers to obtain any desired reinforcement.

The extensions may ,be turned into place, and may be secured to the adjacent. wall of the the load of the casing. For

a third layer as at 36. As will casing, as by adhesive, staples, rivets, or any other suitable means or may remain in place by friction. The reinforcing members may be simple extensions of their respective walls: or

may :be turned on themselves forming face to face layers, which may be secured to each other as seen at l! of Fig. 5. It is preferred, however, that at least one 'pair, either the adjacent or e'vertical wallfia'ps 42a and "a should be turned in first on their score lines 42b and b against their respective walls 42 and I8, and

' are so dimensioned as to fit snugly between the opposing reinforcing members, be free from the adjacent walls of the casing so that when the casing is collapsed for purposes of shipme t,

these free reinforcing members may be turned outwardly on their scored edges, so that they protrude from the front edge of the casing for the reason that, as is well known, the board most commonly used for such purposes is normally adapted to be collapsed on the scores without provision for undue pull or strain resulting from interposing a bulk at the scores between the adjacent sides which are in face to face relation.

If all the reinforcing members were to be turned inwardly and the casing collapsed, such interlying bulk at the common edges of the face to face wall members would normally be excessive and cause a rupture at these common connecting lines. By permitting reinforcing members 'to remain in projecting or extended position as seen for instance in Figure when the container is collapsed, the risk or certainty of rupture or injury to the container from such interlying bulk is avoided.

Although I have disclosed the reinforced layers riveted to each other, .I may, ifdesired, merely turn the layers on themselves without any securing means as illustrated in the top and right side reinforced members in Figure 1.

The utility of this container will now be obvious. Normally for shipment, the container is collapsed to form a substantially fiat unit-with two opposite or adjacent reinforced members turned outwardly as seen for instance in Figure 5 depending on the manner of collapsing. It will be understood that the casing is collapsed on scorings so that an edge with a reinforcing member turned inwardly comes into face to face contact with an edge having its reinforcing member turned outwardly. Or, if preferred, all of the flaps may be turned outwardly when the casing is collapsed. In that case, none of the reinforcings .are permanently secured to the walls of the casing. The upper and lower reinforcing members may be turned into place first and the side reinforcing members turned in to hold the former in place. The side reinforcing members are then held in place by friction.

Or, as is seen'in Figure 2, the reverse order of folding maybe followed in which case the side wall flaps are held in place by the horizontal wall fiaps. The casing seen inFlgure 21s a collapsible casing comprising a top'wall ll, a bottom wall ll and sidewalls l2 .and 43,.the casing bein collapsiblev about the score lines 44. The casing itself is a-quadrilateral tubular structure held in'collapsible tubular formation by the adhesive bind ll.

At the open front end 4" of the casing, each walls and 4|. The horizontal fiaps "a and m: are then turned on their score lines llb and lb against their respective walls 40 and ii tov fitv sn ly between the vertical flaps 42a and a. The vertical flaps thus furnish direct support and compressive strength between the top and bottom walls. The side flaps fitting tightly between the vertical flaps and held in place by friction. hold the vertical fiaps in place to maintain rigidity of the set-up casing, and prevent the vertical fiaps from swinging out to interfere with the movement of the drawer.

The folding in of the fiaps is more clearly shown in Figure 3 wherein it is seen that the horizontal fiaps are folded between the vertical flaps; the horizontal fiaps being here shown only partially folded in for the sake of clarity.

At the consumer's point, the collapsed container is first turned on its scored edges to form the tube shown in Figures 1 or 2 and the outwardly projecting reinforcing members 35 or flaps rt-43a are turned on their scored edges into the position shown. Rear flaps are turned to closing position and secured and the container is ready for use.

It will now be understood that I have illustrated a form which my invention may take and I do not wish to belimited thereby except as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim: I

1. In a file case, a shell of fiber board, said shell having its top, bottom and side members extended and folded in to provide reinforcements for the front end thereof, the folded portions of the top and bottom members fitting between those of the side members and being of sufficient thickness to lock the side folds in place.

2. In a collapsible file case, a shell of foldable fiber board, said shell having its top, bottom and side members extended and folded in to provide reinforcements for the open front end thereof, the folded portions of the top and bottom members fitting between those of the side members and being of sufiicient thickness to lock the side folds in place.

3. In a collapsible file case. a shell formed from a blank of fibrous sheet material, said shell having an open front end and top, bottom and side walls and fold lines between adjacent walls whereby adjacent walls are movable angularly relative to each other to permit fiat collapse of said shell; extensions from said top, bottom and side walls at said open front, said extensions being folded in to provide reinforcements for the said open front, the folded portions of the top and bottom walls fitting between those of the side walls and being of sufilcient thickness to lock the side folds in place.

PHILIP-ZALKIND. 

